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Monthly Archives: September 2016

Vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON spoke to EonMusic about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2015’s “Battering Ram” album. He said: “Yeah, we got about nine drum tracks laid down. We’re running two studios at the same time, so we’re writing in one, and recording in the other, and we’re tripping backwards and forwards when we’re working. We’ve got a lot of ideas already; me and Nibbs [Carter, bassist] have got shitloads, and we’re just working through ideas with the band, really.”

Asked how long they will spend in the studio working on the new SAXON album, Biff said: “We’ll be in until the end of this week, and then we’re off to Sweden to a festival. Then we come back in about a week before the tour, and we spend a week recording, and then we go straight on tour on the 28th October. So yeah, we’ll have a three-week break in the middle, but I’ll probably be writing lyrics and doing melodies then. I usually do that on my own.”

SAXON‘s new album will include a song called “They Played Rock And Roll”, dedicated to MOTÖRHEAD.

“Yeah, that’s on its way,” Biff said. “I’ve finished the lyrics for that, and it will make the album. It’s about the eighties, really. It’s about the ‘Bomber’ tour, and ‘Ace Of Spades’. That’s when we first met them; on the ‘Bomber’ tour, we supported them, so it’s about that, and the album ‘No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith’, and the subsequent ’80s scene.”

“Battering Ram” was released last October in North America via UDR Music. The album featured Byford alongside Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt on guitar, Nibbs Carter on bass and Nigel Glockler on drums.

According to Billboard, “Popestar”, the new EP from Swedish occult rockers GHOST, sold 21,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The effort landed at position No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts.

Meanwhile, the new GHOST original song “Square Hammer”, which is featured on “Popestar”, has entered multiple Billboard charts, including Hard Rock Digital Song Sales at No. 7 (3,000 downloads sold), No. 33 on the Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart, No. 36 on Rock Digital Song Sales and No. 41 on Hot Rock Songs.

“Popestar” was released on September 16. The effort includes covers of songs from bands like ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN and EURYTHMICS along with “Square Hammer”.

“Popestar” was helmed by English producer Tom Dalgety, who has previously worked with ROYAL BLOOD and KILLING JOKE, among others.

A Nameless Ghoul told myROCK about GHOST‘s new EP: “The EP will sort of connect with ‘Meliora’, so it’s not [going to feature] a new Papa [Editor’s note: In a parody of the Catholic Church’s tradition of papal succession, GHOST singer Papa Emeritus is purportedly replaced by a new Papa for each GHOST album.], it’s not a new album; it’s gonna be like an extension of ‘Meliora’. That is gonna prolong the tour. So we’re gonna do an American tour in the fall, and then we’re gonna come back to Europe in the beginning of next year and do a bigger, sort of final ‘Meliora’ show. And in between now and then, we will work on the new album, and after the European tour in the beginning of [2017], we’re gonna go into the studio and record a new album.”

GHOST kicked off the “Popestar” U.S. tour on September 16, with dates scheduled through November 12 in Brooklyn, New York.

In June 2016, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore made many long held dreams come true for his fans as RITCHIE BLACKMORE’S RAINBOW played three concerts in Europe, two in Germany and one in England. The two German shows at Loreley and Bietigheim were caught on camera to produce “Memories In Rock – Live In Germany”, which will be released via Eagle Rock Entertainment on DVD+2CD, Blu-ray+2CD, and digital formats on November 18. A deluxe version (DVD, Blu-ray and 2CD in a 48-page hardback photobook), along with a 3LP version (180-gram vinyl), will be available as an import on December 2.

This film captures the long-awaited return to rock music for Ritchie Blackmore. The setlist, combining classic tracks from both DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW, was exactly what the fans had wished for. Filmed in high definition, this jaw-dropping set includes “Catch The Rainbow”, “Mistreated”, “Since You Been Gone”, “Black Night”, “Spotlight Kid”, “Smoke On The Water”, “Stargazer”, “Perfect Strangers”, and more! As a bonus all formats (barring the 3LP) also boast a quartet of tracks recorded on an alternative night: “Spotlight Kid”, “Man On The Silver Mountain”, “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll”, and “Stargazer”.

11. Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
12. Child In Time / Woman From Tokyo
13. Black Night
14. Smoke On The Water

Blackmore spoke to the Dutch radio station Radio Veronica about what made him decide to play the recent RAINBOW comeback shows. He said: “Besides money, I heard the [new RAINBOW] singer, Ronnie [Romero, who is originally from Chile but now settled in Madrid, Spain], singing on YouTube. Candy [Ritchie‘s wife, Candice Night] had played it to me. She said, ‘What to do you think of this guy?’ And I don’t go on the computer very much; I’m too old for that stuff. And Candy is often going on YouTube or whatever, and she said, ‘He’s singing some of your old songs, the RAINBOW songs.’ And I heard them, and I went, ‘Wow! This guy is really good. He’s exciting.’ And there had been some talk about reforming RAINBOW with David Coverdale and a few others — Glenn Hughes… Although they are friends of mine, I wasn’t urgently involved in it. I was hesitating for probably a good part of a year before I kind of decided I wasn’t gonna do it — until I heard this singer. As soon as I heard the singer, he had such a good voice, so much vitality, and that excited me. I thought, ‘Wow! He’s singing all the old songs, but he’s doing it so well — old hard rock.’ It was exciting to hear.”

Asked if he enjoyed the three RAINBOW comeback shows so far, Ritchie said: “I enjoyed especially the last one in England. The first two were a little bit intense, because we hadn’t played together… we hadn’t done a lot of rehearsing, so the first two shows were a bit hectic and chaotic. But the last one in Birmingham was… obviously, we’d played two shows at that point, and that seemed to work, to me. And it was great to see all the old people… I mean, it was so weird how… I think it was twenty thousand people… It sold out in fifteen minutes. And I kind of wondered who they thought was playing, ’cause when I got to the auditorium, it was so vast that I thought, ‘Maybe somebody else is playing this show tonight.'”

Regarding whether it was difficult for him to put together a setlist for the first three RAINBOW comeback shows, Ritchie said: “No. [It was] very easy, in a way. We had about fifteen songs that were very obvious songs to play, like ‘Catch The Rainbow’. And we incorporated a few DEEP PURPLE songs — ‘Black Night’, ‘Smoke [On The Water]’, ‘Highway Star’ — of which some of the fans said, ‘Why did you do those DEEP PURPLE songs?’ And I would say, ‘Why not?’ And they said, ‘Well, we thought it was just gonna be RAINBOW. We would prefer to hear [more] RAINBOW songs.’ Which I thought was kind of ironic again. I’m thinking, ‘Wow! We just threw three songs in by DEEP PURPLE when they wanted more [RAINBOW].’ And I noticed when they clapped, they weren’t clapping so hard for DEEP PURPLE [songs]. They said, ‘We hear that every year,’ ’cause [the current lineup of] PURPLE goes around [on tour]. So the next time, if we go out and we do anything, I would do probably ninety-five percent RAINBOW songs; that’s what they seem to want to hear. And it didn’t occur to me. I just naturally assumed they wanted to hear everything.”

Lollapalooza Brasil, Lollapalooza Chile and Lollapalooza Argentina return in 2017 with one of their most anticipated lineups to date featuring headliners METALLICA, THE STROKES, THE WEEKND and THE XX, along with THE CHAINSMOKERS, FLUME, TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB, RANCID, DURAN DURAN, THE 1975 and many more.

Fans will be excited to see METALLICA perform tracks from their new album, “Hardwired…To Self Destruct”, coming out November 18, as well as as new songs from THE WEEKND‘s upcoming release, “Starboy”, due on November 25. This will be the first appearance in South American from THE WEEKND, RANCID and THE 1975.

The sixth edition of Lollapalooza Brasil takes place on March 25-26 at Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paulo.

The fourth edition of Lollapalooza Argentina takes place on March 31 and April 1 at Hippodromo de San Isidro in Buenos Aires.

The seventh edition of Lollapalooza Chile takes place April 1-2 at the beautiful O’Higgins Park in Santiago.

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo recently told the Orlando, Florida radio station WJRR about the band’s touring plans in support of “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”: “We will be definitely getting out there and touring this one hard. The thing is it’s a new baby. With the release of the album and figuring out the setlist, and also being very excited about that, it takes time. And nurturing the show as well — everything from visual production to sound design and that whole thing. It’s really exciting for all of us, including management. Usually, with the States, we really wanna come in and there’s no experimenting; we want it to be right and solid. So we will be touring the States next year; it’s just we’re still developing the production to bring it out there. We’ve done a few things here and there — we played in Minneapolis very recently and we played in San Francisco also fairly recently. So we’re juicing up the machine here. We’re getting there. People are just gonna have to be a little bit more patient with us. I know it took a while to get the album finished and mixed and mastered, and release is right there, coming up very soon. But at the same time, now we’ve gotta get the show right. And it’s all gonna be happening.”

Guitarist and composer Steve Vai is among the inductees for this year’s class of the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame. This year’s class of inductees also includes legendary music executive Charles Koppelman, singer/songwriter Garland Jeffreys, film composer Carter Burwell, hip-hop performer Big Daddy Kane, legendary songwriters/instrumentalists Santo & Johnny, early jazz specialist/bandleader Vince Giordano, and Westbury Music Fair, now the NYCB Theater at Westbury. The LIMHOF will also present the 2016 Harry Chapin Award to Steven Van Zandt for his dedication to music education on Long Island and across the country. Additionally, LIMHOF honors the 2015 and 2016 Music Educators of Note — Long Island public or private school educators who have demonstrated an exceptional and long-term commitment to music education, as well as Long Island music students.

All of the inductees were selected from LIMHOF‘s evolving and growing list of involved people, artists, groups and entities that were born, raised, were founded, or have resided on Long Island for a significant portion of their career or existence.

On Thursday, November 3, 2016, the sixth induction awards ceremony and fundraising gala with a star-studded red carpet event will take place at The Space at Westbury, 250 Post Avenue, Westbury, New York.

In addition to tributes, performances and introductions by the class of inductees, the induction ceremony will host a variety of celebrity appearances, musical performances and visits from former inductees.

“On behalf of myself and the entire Board of Directors of the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame, we are thrilled to have a new class of inductees join a long list of incredible people who have made their mark on the music industry,” said Joe Jankowski, executive director of the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame. “This induction ceremony is set to be one of our best yet and as always, we have quite a few surprises up our sleeves.”

“I am very pleased that the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame has chosen The Space at Westbury for its prestigious induction ceremony. We look forward to hosting this extraordinary event,” said Cyrus Hakakian, founder and owner of The Space at Westbury.

General seating starts at $95 ($75 presale) and are available through Ticketmaster. Premium VIP table seating and sponsorships are available, which includes an exclusive VIP pre-induction awards dinner party, performances, and awards ceremony.

During Monday’s (September 26) Town Hall event at SiriusXM‘s New York studios, METALLICA revealed that the song “Murder One” from its forthcoming “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” LP is a tribute to late MOTÖRHEAD frontman Lemmy Kilmister and uses many of his songtitles in the lyrics.

“MOTÖRHEAD had a lot to do with METALLICA sitting here right now,” METALLICA frontman James Hetfield said, according to Rolling Stone. “But just Lemmy as an entity, as kind of a father figure, he helped us a lot. He was unafraid. And he was a character. And he was himself. And we all respected that so much. He did his own thing to the last breath. No matter who you are, how could you not be inspired by that?”

“In the summer of 1981, I followed MOTÖRHEAD around on tour,” METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich addd . “That was what made me want to be in a band. When I came back to Southern California and called up James and said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to give this a shot,’ … MOTÖRHEAD is the catalyst.”

Shortly after Lemmy‘s passing, Ulrich penned a lengthy tribute to the MOTÖRHEAD mainman in which looked back on the influence Lemmy had not just on METALLICA but also on him personally.

“I was down at [Lemmy‘s] 70th party [on December 13, 2015 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood], and I got a chance to sit with him for about ten minutes, just him and me. I told him that his obligation to the rock and roll community was to live forever because his birthday party was like a hard-rock class reunion,” he wrote in part. “Everybody was there because Lemmy‘s one of the few people we can all agree on who is just the coolest guy ever. We would all show up. I told him it was his obligation to live forever, because he was the reason we could all get together and celebrate hard rock and celebrate MOTÖRHEAD and see familiar faces because we’re all so scattered now. Obviously I could tell that he was in deteriorating health but we had a close bond, one that didn’t necessarily need to be reaffirmed or articulated. The less we said the more we knew the connection was there.”

Lars added: “Whenever METALLICA played L.A., [Lemmy] would always come and watch us, and whenever MOTÖRHEAD was up here, we’d always go and see them play. We probably crossed paths 50 to 100 times in the last 20 years, and he came and played with us onstage multiple times. It was a bond that deep and it goes back to the crazy summer of 1981.

“I will always appreciate and forever cherish all the great times we had together, but especially those early days. We were so vulnerable, so moldable because a significant part of who we’ve become, both in the band and as people, is directly due to not just him but all the rest of the people who were inspired and drank from the same bottles and shared the same stories and same space. His spirit will always live in us.”

MOTÖRHEAD won the “Best Metal Performance” Grammy in 2005 for its cover version of the METALLICA song “Whiplash”.

At a 1995 gig at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, members of METALLICA celebrated Lemmy‘s 50th birthday by taking the stage as a wigged tribute band dubbed the LEMMYS.

In a 2011 interview with Metal Insider, Lemmy said: “You can’t top METALLICA. They’re really a fucking excellent band. I’m delighted that they said that I was one of their influences. Like, they have all of their influences, and you can’t hear the influences in them, which is great. They’ve become their own people, and that’s great. I like them a lot. I’ve spent a lot of time with those boys.”

DISTURBED‘s sixth studio album, “Immortalized “, was officially certified gold on September 23 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales of more than 500,000 copies. The certification came seven months after RIAA started including on-demand audio and video streams and a track sale equivalent in gold and platinum album award.

“Immortalized” features DISTURBED‘s version of “The Sound Of Silence”, which has been a huge hit for the band. Paul Simon shared his approval of it publicly after watching the band perform the song on “Conan” and also exchanging e-mails with singer David Draiman.

DISTURBED‘s record label, Warner Bros., credited the song’s popularity to the video for “Silence”, which was released in December 2015. To date, the clip has been seen more than 108 million times, a record number of views on YouTube for the group.

“Immortalized” was released in August 2015. The effort became the band’s fifth LP in a row to enter the chart at No. 1 — a feat shared only with METALLICA and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND.

Speaking about DISTURBED‘s comeback after going on a four-year hiatus in 2011, Draiman told Fight+Music: “It’s been amazing. The fire has been stoked. We’re performing at a level that I personally believe is unprecedented in our careers. The crowds have been amazing, huge. We’ve really been overwhelmed throughout the duration of this cycle with the amount of success that we’ve seen. We’re very, very grateful.”